WhatsNew2Day – Latest News And Breaking Headlines
Wife tipped to replace Daniel Andrews as Premier of Victoria was responsible for the state’s canceled Commonwealth Games bid.
Deputy Premier Jacinta Allan, who is the longest-serving female minister in Victoria’s history, also hails from the Socialist Left faction of the Labor Party, like her outgoing boss.
She is expected to be elected unopposed by the Labor caucus on Wednesday as the ruling left faction negotiates overnight to choose the next leader of Australia’s second most populous state.
The chief minister, who turned 50 last week, was the face of the canceled Commonwealth Games in Victoria, following the announcement that staging the 13-day event would cost more than $6 billion.
The cancellation will see Victorian taxpayers hand over $380 million to the Commonwealth Games Federation in London.
Until July, she was the “Commonwealth Games Delivery Minister”, in charge of the March 2026 plan to bring events to regional centers in Ballarat, Bendigo, Geelong, Gippsland and Shepparton.
As transport minister since 2014, she has also been linked to a $3.3 billion blowout in Labor’s flagship program to replace level crossings with bridges.
The woman was in favor of replacing Daniel Andrews (second, right) as Victoria’s premier, responsible for the state’s canceled Commonwealth Games bid (deputy premier Jacinta Allan is pictured frontally).
She would be the first woman to lead Victoria since Joan Kirner’s brief tenure from 1990 to 1992, following the collapse of the State Bank.
As the last woman to lead Victoria three decades ago, she would also take over during the Labor government’s third term marred by public debt problems.
A political insider said Ms Allan would face difficult times as Prime Minister, after her left faction struck an overnight deal to have her elected unopposed, to avoid Labor having to organize a 50/50 postal vote between deputies and rank-and-file members. drop off party members.
“I expect it will be very difficult for the government,” the veteran observer told Daily Mail Australia.
Mr Andrews timed his surprise resignation to give Ms Allan’s potential opponents less time to organize in a party where the left-wing faction is the largest among MPs.
“It may not be contested because the suitors think they were blindsided and that’s why they did it without notice,” the source said.
“That’s why they did it in a limited time.”
Some also predict that the left would collapse without Mr. Andrews as a strongman.
“The level of stability is something I think you’re not holding your breath on,” the insider said.
“They don’t have an authoritarian centralizing government – there’s a lot of resentment about the level of centralization.”
Victoria’s net debt of $116.7 billion for the last financial year was greater than the combined net debt of New South Wales ($78.4 billion), Queensland ($14.5 billion) , South Australia ($19 billion) and Tasmania ($2.994 billion).
Melbourne’s world-record 267 days of Covid lockdown in 2020 and 2021 cost Victoria taxpayers dearly, leaving the state in its worst situation since the early 1990s, when the state’s merchant banking arm Bank, Tricontinental, lost $2.7 billion.
Ms Kirner replaced John Cain, who, like Mr Andrews, had won three Labor elections, including one in opposition.
Ms Allan, a future premier of Victoria, was elected to Parliament in 1999 when, at 26, she beat a sitting Liberal MP more than twice her age in the regional city of Bendigo.
If she becomes leader, she would be Victoria’s first Labor premier in 88 years to represent an electorate outside of Melbourne.
Deputy Prime Minister Jacinta Allan also comes from the Socialist Left faction of the Labor Party, like her outgoing boss. The chief minister, who turned 50 last week, was the face of the canceled Commonwealth Games in Victoria, following a $6 billion cost blowout.
She would be the first woman to lead Victoria since Joan Kirner’s brief tenure from 1990 to 1992, following the collapse of the State Bank.
With 17 years of political experience juggling portfolios, the mother of two certainly has no shortage of experience.
By a happy coincidence, she has the same initials as former New Zealand Labor Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern.
The Bendigo East MP is from the same faction of the socialist left as her boss, Mr Andrews, and, like him, she was a political staffer before being elected to Parliament.
Her second husband, Yorick Piper, like her, was a policy advisor to Labor politicians and at one point even worked for his future wife.
They have a daughter Peggy and a son, Cormac Kevin.
Her husband was previously head of the Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union, before becoming a senior adviser to former Labor prime minister John Brumby.
He is now director of the Victorian Fisheries Authority, and a government website praises his “extensive knowledge of government and stakeholder engagement, as well as industrial relations”.
“In addition, Mr Piper is passionate about fisheries, the development of fisheries policy and the importance of education within this Authority,” he said.
Her second husband Yorick Piper (left), like her, was a policy adviser to Labor politicians and at one point even worked for his future wife. He is now director of the Victorian Fisheries Authority, with a government website praising his “extensive knowledge of government and stakeholder engagement, as well as industrial relations”.
If Ms Allan became Prime Minister, it would create the untenable situation of having a spouse in the civil service.
She could learn from what happened in Queensland when Anna Bligh, the state’s first female premier, in 2007 appointed her husband Greg Withers to head the Office of Climate Change at a salary of 220 000 dollars.
As for canceling the Commonwealth Games, the political source said it would weaken Ms Allan’s authority among ministers.
‘Without a doubt.’